Enterprises increasingly rely on Mobile Device Management (“MDM”) or Enterprise Mobility Management (“EMM”) providers to help manage devices for employees. Device-management systems allow an enterprise to exercise varying levels of control over devices, even when those devices are employee-owned. Enrolling a device into a device-management system can involve installing management software on the device that allows an administrator to monitor the device and enforce policies and compliance rules. Enrollment can also include leveraging EMM functionality built into an operating system (“OS”) of a device.
However, devices are constantly receiving firmware updates. Sometimes these updates can be disruptive in the enterprise environment. When new firmware is released, it can include exploitable bugs or can unintentionally alter device functionality. For example, new firmware can cause incompatibility with an enterprise application. Also, EMM functionality may need to be tailored differently based on firmware and OS differences between devices. Similarly, if a device allows a user to reject firmware updates, critical security patches can be missing. This can leave an enterprise at risk when enterprise data is accessed by a user device that is missing a security patch. User choices in applying firmware updates can result in a variety of different firmware versions across even the same device models in an EMM system.
An enterprise typically has no control over firmware releases. IT administrators have no way of keeping the installed versions uniform and predictable. Instead, firmware updates are usually pushed automatically to devices and are carrier controlled. When devices update themselves, the enterprise faces potential functionality and compatibility conflicts. Administrators need time to verify new firmware does not introduce flaws in the EMM system. Without control over the firmware updates, an enterprise must constantly react to firmware updates without knowing the true impact of the update in advance.
As a result, a need exists for systems and methods for managing firmware versions on user devices.